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You read a great blog post that gives you a great desire to leave a feedback comment. But then you can’t find the comment box. What!? There is no comments enabled for that blog post.

This has to be one of my greatest frustrations with a new trend in blogs. The disabling of comments. Why would a blog do that? Some thoughts on why a blog disables comments:

If someone wants to reply, it forces people to use social media.

The blog owner doesn’t have to spend time to cut out spam comments.

The author doesn’t have to spend time responding to comments.

The blog owner is fearful of having zero comments appear next to each post.

Sheer volume of comments makes it too much to monitor, even if the comments are legitimate. (This point submitted in the comments by suzie81)

The only legitimate reason would be the first one. And even that one is a poor reason, IMHO. Responses should be encouraged in any fashion. It’s just poor practice to cut off one of the major mechanisms for developing dialogue.

Am I missing something else with why a blog would not enable comments?

It could be an issue if the sheer volume if comments means means that it is impossible to reply to and/or moderate. I’ve had quite a few new followers over the last month and recently I’ve been getting so many comments I’m finding it difficult to keep up.

It may also be that someone just doesn’t want to hear somebody else’s opinion.

I totally agree with you though – if I see something I enjoyed reading or have an opinion on I want to comment on it!

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About the author

Hi. I'm Matt Maldre. I've been working in the syndication business for over 17 years. How do we create, read, and share? Honest and bold opinions on publishing and syndication in this weekly blog.
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This makes me feel better about being a generalist. I often yearn to dive really deep into one area, to really master it, and have the sense of accomplishment. But your post here excellently explains the value of being a generalist.